In the competitive scenery of European financing, SISSA is at the top of the ranking of the Italian scientific institutions for the ratio between awarded Grants (financing for research) and number of researchers and lecturers.

When do we start learning our first words? According to a new study carried out by the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), the first signs of brain activity linked to linguistic memory can be seen ever since the early days of our lives.

While studying Parkinson's disease, an international research group led by SISSA scientists in Trieste made a discovery which can improve industrial protein synthesis for therapeutic use. They managed to understand the use of RNA when it is not involved in the protein-coding process: the protein synthesis activity of coding genes can be enhanced, for example, by the activity of the non-coding one called "antisense".

The group led by Giovanni Bussi at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste has just received considerable financing to study RNA, a molecule with several functions, important in the biology of the cell. In the project, the method of computer simulations will be used.

Until now it has been a mystery to scientists: how does it work? What is the need of the movement of euglenids, small organisms swimming in any pond? Nobody has ever described it in detail and nobody has ever understood its dynamics. But today, through a mathematical model, scientists at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) and at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya have suggested a plausible description of this movement, made by the sliding of the membrane around the outer surface of euglenids.

What do movements have to do with our understanding of language? Some scientists say that the way we understand words describing actions (walking, jumping, dancing...) could be connected to the motor activity of the brain related to movements. Two studies, one published soon after the other in Cortex and in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, have involved some SISSA scientists in Trieste and have explored this hypothesis from different points of view.

The first edition of Trieste Next, European Innovation and Scientific Research Forum, was held in Trieste from 28th to 30th September 2012. The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) participated as co-promoter and organised eight events for scientific dissemination.

Empathy is what makes us human: it is the ability to reflect ourselves in other people's emotions and what creates that fundamental cohesion at the basis of our society. The ability to be empathic originates in our brain, in ancient and basic structures making up the material of which even very complex forms of empathy are made.